Capital One

Is Capital One safe?

For insured deposits, yes. Capital One, N.A. is an FDIC-insuredDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary bank, and its funding is unusually safe: about 85% of its $484 billion of deposits was within insurance limits at 30 June 2026, and its liquidity coverage ratioLiquidity coverage ratioA bank's cash and easy-to-sell assets compared with the money that could flow out in a 30-day crisis. It must be at least 100%.More in the glossary averaged 165%. The FDIC call report for Capital One, N.A. shows $106.7 billion uninsured out of $512.6 billion, but that includes balances from other Capital One companies and cash collateral from derivative trades. Excluding those, the bank estimates $72.3 billion uninsured. Capital is ample too, with a CET1 ratioCET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary of 13.7% against a 9.0% requirement. We score Capital One 71/100. It loses points on conduct and digital security, where the 2019 data breach still stands out, and on ratings in the BBB to A range.

What changed with Discover?

Capital One completed its purchase of Discover Financial Services on 18 May 2025, and Discover Bank merged into Capital One, N.A. That made Capital One one of the largest US banks by deposits, with $674 billion of assets in June 2026, and gave it its own card network. It bought the fintech Brex in April 2026.

It also inherited Discover's problems. From 2007 until at least 2023 Discover put millions of consumer cards in its most expensive commercial pricing tier, overcharging merchants by more than $1 billion. In April 2025 the Federal Reserve fined Discover $100 million and the FDICDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary fined Discover Bank $150 million and ordered restitution of at least $1.225 billion. Capital One has committed to meet those orders. Discover's 2020 CFPB student-loan order stays in force until 2030.

Fines and lawsuits

Capital One's own record is not clean either. In January 2021 FinCEN fined it $390 million after it admitted willfully failing to report suspicious activity by check-cashing customers, including one linked to the Genovese crime family. In 2020 the OCC fined it $80 million over weak risk controls when moving IT systems to the cloud, the failings behind the 2019 breach.

The case most savers will know is 360 Savings. Customers sued in 2023, saying Capital One launched a new 360 Performance Savings account at a far higher rate and left older 360 Savings accounts on a low one. New York's attorney general sued in 2025. A settlement with a $425 million fund, which also lifts the old account's rate to match, won final court approval in April 2026 and is under appeal by an objector.

The 2019 breach and the 2025 outage

In July 2019 Capital One found that an outside individual had taken data from its cloud servers on about 100 million people in the US and 6 million in Canada. Most of it was names, addresses, income and credit data from card applications, plus about 140,000 US Social Security numbers and about 1 million Canadian Social Insurance Numbers. No card numbers or passwords were taken, and the government said it had found no evidence of fraud from the data.

In January 2025 a power outage at the vendor FIS left some customers unable to see deposits, pay bills or move money for about four days. No money was lost, but it showed how much depends on outside processors.

Capital, ratings and 2008

	Moody's	S&P	Fitch
Capital One, N.A.	A3	BBB+	A
Capital One Financial Corp.	Baa1	BBB	A-

The capital ratio has room to spare: 4.7 points above the requirement, a wider margin than at Wells Fargo or Bank of America. The ratings are lower because card lending is riskier than mortgage or corporate lending. Loss rates rise fast in recessions. Fitch put the ratings on review for possible downgrade in May 2026, while S&P has a positive outlook.

Capital One took TARP capital in late 2008 and repaid it in 2009. It needed no rescue and grew by buying deposit franchises, most notably ING Direct USA, which became Capital One 360.

How to keep your money safe at Capital One

• Treat Capital One 360, the old Discover savings and Capital One branch accounts as one bank for the $250,000 limit.
• If you hold an old 360 Savings account, check its rate against 360 Performance Savings and the settlement terms.
• Freeze your credit with the three bureaus if you think your data was in the 2019 breach. It costs nothing.
• Keep a second account at another bank with a few weeks' spending, so a vendor outage does not stop your bills.

How we scored it

Liquidity (88) is the strongest factor, thanks to a deposit base that is mostly insured retail money. Digital security (50) and conduct (45) are the weakest, for the 2019 breach, the FinCEN penalty and the Discover orders. For a lower-risk regional peer, see U.S. Bank.